Yes, Your Momma Can Get Tattoos Too

Tattoo Artist Margaret Lawson from Jacksonville, Florida

It’s not just younger people getting tattoos these days. I got my first tattoo three years ago when I was 50yrs old and my husband and I were in Las Vegas for our 28th wedding anniversary. Now I will admit it wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Not the tattoo, the just walking into a parlor on the strip and getting it done was the stupid part. I did everything that you could possible do wrong except for picking out a tat that I actually liked. I knew nothing about the shop or the tattooist and didn’t ask questions. I got a very bad tattoo job done as he used the wrong colors, drilled me deeply trying to fix it, and he just wanted to be done so he could go to lunch. I got cellulites and lost a lot of skin layers and most of the color on the tattoo where he screwed up. It took 3yrs to heal completely. But you know what? That made me want another tattoo even more.

Now I will also admit to being one of those mothers who were dead set against tattoos about the time my children were in high school and interested in them. But this was 15yrs ago about the time when tattoos just started to become popular and all you really saw were tribal and cartoon characters, but everyone was getting them. Thankfully my kids didn’t because I think they might have regretted those types of tats now.

But that was just the start many of the artists becoming interested in this “new” medium of expression and the actual Art of tattooing began to develop into what it has become today. It is less tacky “flash” and more personal creativity between the tattoo artist and the client who is lucky enough to wear the artwork.

I started seeing more and more people with beautiful pieces of artwork on their bodies and it fascinated me. Did this hurt? How could you ever decide what to get? I watched all the shows on T.V. and searched the internet about how safe tattoos are, what to watch for, etc. and finally decided I was going to do it. Now I am a tattoo junkie. It is like potato chips, you can’t have just one.

I scour the internet for pictures of tattoos that I like, trying to get ideas. I have only two tats now but if you count the fact that I had the first one tattooed over to fix it, I was tattooed three times. The gentleman that did the work this time was fantastic. I have a delicate butterfly with small flower/vines with my daughter’s name on the inside of my left wrist. I plan on having a small dream catcher with my son’s name done on the inside of my right wrist next. After that, who knows where I’ll stop. I’ve seen so many tattoos that I have gotten excited about that I could cover myself and someone else as well. There is just so much talent out there now it is hard to decide what to get and where to put it and when is enough, enough?

I feel like as I get older and my body isn’t as great as it was when I was young, I can have this pretty art that I feel good about and isn’t that what really matters?

Related

1 responses to “Yes, Your Momma Can Get Tattoos Too”

What a beautiful piece, especially the last sentence. It is interesting because the one question people always ask (after, did it hurt?) is what about when you get older? Well looked after or recent tattoo’s on slightly older people are really are beautiful, they give the body a new focal point. Hope you continue to get more lovely art work.